Stable and robust train routing in station areas with balanced infrastructure capacity occupation

• Published in: Public transport Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 211 - 236
• Main Authors: Bešinović, Nikola, Goverde, Rob M. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algorithms; Automotive Engineering; Business and Management; CAE) and Design; Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD; Feasibility; Infrastructure; Multiple objective analysis; Occupations; Operations Research/Decision Theory; Optimization; Planning; Preventive maintenance; Rail transportation; Railway stations; Robustness; Route selection; Trains; Transportation; Routing; Stable; Railway; Robust; Max-plus algebra; Conflict-free
• ISSN: 1866-749X; 1613-7159
• DOI: 10.1007/s12469-019-00202-3

Routing trains through busy railway station layouts is an important part of the timetabling process. For each train, a feasible route has to be determined to provide reliable operations, given the arrival and departure times at stations. In this paper, we propose a model for stable and robust train routing with the goal to minimize capacity occupation and maximize robustness. We define a multi-objective optimization problem and provide the heuristic RouteCare based on a max-plus automata model and a delay propagation model. We consider microscopic infrastructure to guarantee practical feasibility. The performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated on real-life instances of the Dutch railway network. The generated solutions outperformed the variants of RouteCare that independently maximize stability or robustness by 10.4% and 9.5%, respectively. In addition, RouteCare showed that even for the same number of resources used, a more robust route plan can be found that uses the station capacity more efficiently.